I have a new job. There. I spent a while trying to work out how to say that and ‘blurting’ seems to be just about the best method. I work for the Sakai City Board of Education. They were my previous employer while I was a JET and have been kind enough to reemploy me [...]
I had to actually go back and check the last time I wrote in the blog. It says I had an entry on the 20th July but I can assure it seems so much longer ago. Things have moved very quickly in the last week or so and I’ll write another entry about my new [...]
I’m really into the death throes here. Sorry. I’m feeling a little morbid at the moment. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m coming to the end of my time at the school or what but whatever it is I’m feeling a little darker. My mood was not improved when I discovered today that I [...]
I’ve resisted calculating exactly how many days I have left at Ichiko but I know it’s not many. Why not prepare a countdown like most of my other colleagues? To me that feels like an admission of defeat. One of the things I really wanted to ensure was that Ichiko didn’t break my spirit. While [...]
Every year the JET Programme runs an essay contest and, because I had nothing better to do, I entered it. I found out today that mine was not among the winning entries but that’s OK. When you read it I think you’ll understand why this was probably not what they were looking for. I thought [...]
I realise school updates have usually been coming out at the end of the week (or at least that’s been the plan) but I didn’t have a great time today and I felt the need to vent. I hope you’ll indulge me. One of my tasks at Ichiko is to make up oral test dialogues [...]
Yes, it finally happened. After raining out twice last September and then again last Friday, this Friday just past was the day of Ichiko’s sports festival. I’d waited so long to attend this that I don’t think it was ever going to quite live up to my expectations. Not that I didn’t have fun; I [...]
I realise this is a week late but there were important things happening last week. None immediately spring to mind but I’m certain that’s because they were so important. Anyway, last week. So, in spite of my initial bravado regarding the Cultural Exchange Checklist, exams were on last week and there wasn’t much to do but [...]
Week 6’s come and gone and to be honest it was a pretty easy week. Test season began on Friday and Thursday was only a four-period day. In essence this mean I had Thursday and Friday off. You saw some of the fruits of this free time with yesterday’s whinge about analogies and I’ve got [...]
Yeah, yeah, I realise this is a bit late but it was a pretty busy weekend and I think I may as well focus on that since the week itself wasn’t particularly eventful. Classes happened, I caught up with my marking and that was about it. Indeed, if it weren’t for the weekend not only would [...]